On 8/14/01, my doctor stripped my membranes without my permission. I was so disappointed. I really wanted to have this baby completely natural without any intervention. But, it was done and I had to let nature take it's course.
I had backaches all day. I tried taking a hot bath, but that didn't help. I also had times when I felt like I was getting sick. I had diarrhea and alternating sweat/chills. Daryl had a meeting that night, so I took all of the kids with me to Cameron's football practice. The backaches got worse at practice. I called my mom around 7:30pm and asked her to meet me at my house after practice. We got home and I took another hot bath while Mom fixed dinner for the kids. The bath didn't help my backache. I even had a few contractions while I was in the tub.
At 9:45pm, I decided I should call and ask what I should do. I was so excited when I found out that Lisa (the midwife) was on call. I told her about everything that had happened throughout the day. She suggested I go on in to the birthing center to see what was going on. Then she told me that the doctor was going on call in 10 minutes, so he would be coming in to check on me. I tracked Daryl down and had him come home. When he got home, I paged the birthing center nurse to let her know that I was coming in.
We got on the road around 10:30pm. Daryl, Caleb and I in our van and Cameron, Bailey and Keiran with my mom in her car. We got to the birthing center at 11:00pm. I started having mild contractions on the way that were about 2 minutes apart. The nurse checked me and I was dilated 5 cm, but she could stretch it to 6 cm. She called the doctor to let him know and told me to walk to get the contractions started again. I walked for 2 hours. The contractions were 2 minutes apart, but only lasted 20 seconds and they didn't hurt. As soon as I stopped walking, the contractions stopped.
Since my dad was out of town, my mom called my aunt to come and help with the kids. She came with her daughter and her daughter's friend. The birthing center had a television and toys to keep the kids entertained.
The doctor got there at 1:00am. He checked me again and I hadn't changed. He recommended breaking my water. This was something that I was originally against. But, by this time, my contractions were in my back, lower abdomen, and tops of my thighs. My legs hurt so bad I couldn't lift them myself to get into bed. So, I said ok. As soon as he broke my water, the contractions came right on top of each other and they hurt!
They had a hard time picking up the baby's heartbeat with the doppler and when they did, it was 110's and 120's. So, they hooked me up to the monitor for a few contractions. During the contractions, it would jump up to 140's, but then go back down to 110-120's. They were concerned about that.
I was finally able to crawl into the tub at 1:45am. The hot water helped as long as I could get my belly under the water. Talk about some weird positions. I had finally gotten to the point of being exhausted and I was sweating and he checked and I was only 7 cm. I was so discouraged. I broke down and asked for Nubain and was told that I didn't need it. While I was in the tub, the baby's heartbeat jumped up to 180's, which they liked. When I had finally had enough, he checked and I just had a "lip" left, which he told me to push through. I was reclined on my back in the tub and couldn't find a position to push in. I didn't have anything to hold on to or to push my feet against to push. I tried to push, but I had enough. I gave up and told them I couldn't do anymore. They talked me into getting back into the bed to push. I didn't think there was any way I could physically get out of the tub. I got up on my knees and started to lean over the tub and felt the burning. The doctor had already taken his gloves off and I started pushing. It took several pushes because I didn't want to tear, and I didn't.
Here is a picture right after he was born at 2:42am
My mom wanted to know how big he was before she took the kids home. Everyone kept saying he looked big, but I didn't think so. He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 21" long. I couldn't believe he was that big. He didn't look or feel that big.
Here's a picture of him being weighed.
At 4:00pm, I told the nurses I was ready to go home. I still had to get my RhoGam shot and they had to take his picture and give him his Hepatitis B vaccine. They also needed to check his temperature one more time. It was down again, so they worked for about 45 minutes to get it up. We ended up leaving around 7:00pm.
On the way home, we dropped off my prescriptions at the pharmacy. It was going to be about 1/2 hour before they'd be ready. So, we stopped by Cameron's football practice to show him off. No one could believe that I was there the night before in labor and I was back the next day with the baby.
